| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Manon Lescaut by Abbe Prevost: inclined to roguery.'
"I could hardly contain my indignation at this speech. I would
have given for one moment's liberty--Heavens! what would I not
have given? At length, I suppressed my feelings sufficiently to
say in a tone of moderation, which was but the refinement of
rage: `Put an end, sir, to this insolent mockery! What is your
object? What do you purpose doing with us?'
"`M. Chevalier,' he answered, `my object is to see you quietly
lodged in the prison of Le Chatelet. Tomorrow will bring
daylight with it, and we shall then be able to take a clearer
view of matters; and I hope you will at last do me the favour to
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Laches by Plato: LYSIMACHUS: That is very high praise which is accorded to you, Socrates,
by faithful witnesses and for actions like those which they praise. Let me
tell you the pleasure which I feel in hearing of your fame; and I hope that
you will regard me as one of your warmest friends. You ought to have
visited us long ago, and made yourself at home with us; but now, from this
day forward, as we have at last found one another out, do as I say--come
and make acquaintance with me, and with these young men, that I may
continue your friend, as I was your father's. I shall expect you to do so,
and shall venture at some future time to remind you of your duty. But what
say you of the matter of which we were beginning to speak--the art of
fighting in armour? Is that a practice in which the lads may be
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Little Britain by Washington Irving: opening of every club night he is called in to sing his
"Confession of Faith," which is the famous old drinking trowl
from "Gammer Gurton's Needle." He sings it, to be sure, with
many variations, as he received it from his father's lips; for it
has been a standing favorite at the Half-Moon and Bunch of
Grapes ever since it was written; nay, he affirms that his
predecessors have often had the honor of singing it before the
nobility and gentry at Christmas mummeries, when Little
Britain was in all its glory.
It would do one's heart good to hear, on a club night, the
shouts of merriment, the snatches of song, and now and then
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